Freedom From - Freedom For

Two pro-life videos ultimately pursuing positive ends - recognition of the dignity of life.  Two completely different uses of freedom.  Check these out:





These are two pro-life videos.  The first video is from a Christian group in Iran called Elam.  The second is from a completely secular company - Pampers (this fact, in itself, is a little miracle).

After watching these two clips, I noticed a difference within myself.  The Elam video resulted in a feeling of sadness.  I desired a freedom from the results of abortion - the death, the despair, the darkness.  This was a real feeling and a real desire - and one that I believe drives most of the pro-life movement.  We want a freedom from the culture of death.

Meanwhile, the Pampers video casts this entire freedom issue into a different light.  I remember watching this clip for the first time months ago and almost fell off my chair - mostly because Pampers did it, and secondarily because it is beautiful.  (Now, I realize the In Vitro Fertilization clip is in there.  We could obviously discuss this in a separate paper.  Regardless of the political/moral point they were trying to make with IVF in the TV ad, life still happens in those situations, and the baby is still a real human being - even if moral ramifications exist.)

The Pampers commercial emitted a response from within me of freedom for life.  The clip is chock full of the beauty of new life - the beauty of this life that takes us by surprise, holds us, spins us around, and keeps us longing for more if it.  This is a positive movement of the soul.  This is a real, positive emotion and desire for freedom.

These clips do a good job of illustrating this issue of freedom from and freedom for, which are ultimately up for our consideration.  Certainly we want freedom from sin and death, but why?  Just because they are bad and limiting?  Shifting the focus from a negative vantage point, to a positive one, allows for a full answer why.  Why do I want freedom from a culture of death?  Because the good (life itself) is great and worthy of my pursuit.  I want freedom for more life.  This is a movement into a positive, and ultimately more attractive light.